NEW YORK – CBS isn't commenting on reports that veteran newsman Walter Cronkite is gravely ill.

The 92-year-old former anchor of "The CBS Evening News," who has been ailing for some time, has reportedly taken a turn for the worse, according to TVNewser and other online sites.

CBS News spokesman Kevin Tedesco had no comment on Friday.

Bob Schieffer said, "All of us are praying for the best, and our thoughts are with Walter's family." The host of CBS' "Face the Nation" and a longtime Cronkite colleague, Schieffer noted that he had no current news on Cronkite's condition.

The face of CBS News for more than two decades, Cronkite was named "the most trusted man in America" in a 1972 "trust index" survey, and he ended each broadcast with the reassuring signoff, "And that's the way it is."

He left the "Evening News" anchor desk in 1981, but after that kept a busy schedule both in journalistic and other activities.

For 24 years, he served as onsite host for New Year's Day telecasts by the Vienna Philharmonic until ill health forced him to bow out earlier this year.

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Demonpenz

06-19-2009, 03:50 PM

st joseph, where jesse james died and walter cronkite was born and the home of the chiefs training camp and run on sentences

Buck

06-19-2009, 03:53 PM

Well, Prayers to him and his family.

DJ's left nut

06-19-2009, 04:41 PM

I thought he died a decade ago.

sedated

06-19-2009, 04:43 PM

I thought he died a decade ago.

agreed.

rich and famous and lived to 92. not a bad life.

38yrsfan

06-19-2009, 05:19 PM

I thought he died a decade ago.

He got better.

RJ

06-19-2009, 05:30 PM

Ironic this news would come out at the same time as the news from NASA about going back to the moon.

As a boy, I was always envious of cronkite's scale model rockets and capsules. I'd have loved to have had those setting on my dresser.